Worldwide condemnation of Japan's "scientific" whaling began this week in the countdown to the next International Whaling Commission meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan. Greenpeace activists from Argentina to the UK gathered at Japanese embassies to deliver their protests in the form of whale meat boxes, petitions, letters, postcards, e-mails and faxes. Copied from the originals used by the Japanese whaling fleet , the boxes highlight the commercial reality of so-called "scientific" whaling. Whales hunted in the name of science are destined for the tables of restaurants and the shelves of supermarkets as a delicacy despite a diminishing market in Japan.
The protesters are calling on the Government of Japan to halt its Fisheries Agency from pursuing its present scientific whaling activities.
In the UK Greenpeace delivered a petition signed by marine and cetacean biologists from around the world calling upon the government to end its 'scientific' whaling was handed over to the Japanese Embassy. Among the eminent signatories were Dr. David Suzuki and Prof. Hal Whitehead.
Berlin, Greenpeace unloaded truckloads of whale meat boxes and stacked them in front of the Japanese embassy. Leaving no doubts as to the meaning of the boxes, a three meter tall box with a minke whale head and its tail projecting from each end capped the display. Yesterday, in Austria, 80 protestors sporting white uniforms and white painted faces shouldered their burden of whale tails and whale meat boxes on sticks and stood in silent vigil in front of the Japanese embassy.
In Tokyo, a petition signed by marine and cetacean biologists from around the world calling upon the government to end its scientific whaling was handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Japanese protestors. Among the eminent signatories were Dr. David Suzuki and Prof. Hal Whitehead. In Australia, there was a solemn display of Japanese dancing by artists in white body paint on a red carpet in front of the Japanese consulate in Sydney.
In five weeks, the fate of the whales will be decided by a mix of pro and anti-whaling countries at the IWC. The Fisheries Agency has been packing the IWC with nations who have sold their votes in return for foreign aid from Japan . Should the Fisheries Agency succeed in gaining a voting majority they will be able to expand their present whaling activities and pave the way to overturning the moratorium on commercial whaling and a return to factory ship whaling of the kind that decimated populations in the past , overturn the Indian Ocean whale sanctuary, and restart commercial trade with Norway and other countries which may also decide to restart whaling.
As part of its push for the resumption of commercial whaling, the Fisheries Agency has launched a high profile public relations campaign using controversial and scientifically unsubstantiated claims that there are too many whales and that they eat too much fish. In addition, they have been trying to boost the popularity of eating whale meat among the Japanese by handing out free samples despite the threat of toxic contamination.
"It is highly irresponsible of the Fisheries Agency to try to justify a return to commercial whaling by claiming that there are too many whales eating too many fish," said John Frizell, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner. "The evidence is that overfishing by humans is the cause of the present fisheries crises, not whales. The Fisheries Agency is singlehandedly undermining the credibility of the Japanese scientific community by making such outlandish claims. They are becoming the laughingstock of other marine biologists."
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